The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915 eBook

In this inquiry there has been no desire to deny the
value of the German contributions to the arts and
to the sciences. These contributions are known
to all; they speak for themselves; they redound to
the honor of German culture; and for them, whatever
may be their number, the other nations of the world
are eternally indebted to Germany. But these German
contributions are neither important enough nor numerous
enough to justify the assumption that German culture
is superior or that Germany is entitled to think herself
the supreme leader of the arts and of the sciences.
No one nation can claim this lofty position, although
few would be so bold as to deny the superior achievement
of the French in the fine arts and of the English
in pure science.

Nations are never accepted by other nations at their
own valuation; and the Germans need not be surprised
that we are now astonished to find them asserting
their natural self-appreciation, with the apparent
expectation that it will pass unchallenged. The
world owes a debt to modern Germany beyond all question,
but this is far less than the debt owed to England
and to France. It would be interesting if some
German, speaking with authority, should now be moved
to explain to us Americans the reasons which underlie
the insistent assertion of the superiority of German
civilization. Within the past few weeks we have
been forced to gaze at certain of the less pleasant
aspects of the German character; and we have been
made to see that the militarism of the Germans is in
absolute contradiction to the preaching and to the
practice of the great Goethe, to whom they proudly
point as the ultimate representative of German culture.

BRANDER MATTHEWS.

Columbia University in the City of New York, Sept.
18, 1914.

Culture vs. Kultur

By Frank Jewett Mather, Jr.

To the Editor of The New York Times:

Current discussion of the worth of German culture
has been almost hopelessly clouded by the fact that
when a German speaks of Kultur he means an entirely
different thing from what a Latin or Briton means by
culture. Kultur means the organized efficiency
of a nation in the broadest sense—­its successful
achievement in civil and military administration,
industry, commerce, finance, and in a quite secondary
way in scholarship, letters, and art. Kultur applies
to a nation as a whole, implying an enlightened Government
to which the individual is strictly subordinated.
Thus Kultur is an attribute not of individuals—­whose
particular interests, on the contrary, must often be
sacrificed to it—­but of nations.